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Why Good Social Media Customer Service is Important

Social media has evolved so much in the last few years, especially if you are in business. It is no longer just a platform to share your happy snaps, and cute cat memes. It is a great opportunity to get your business in front of your target market. And with 1.94 billion active monthly users on Facebook alone, there is a massive opportunity to impress the right people. But with poor social media customer service, there is an even bigger opportunity to tarnish your business’ reputation.

Everyone Can See Everything

Just like your mother always used to tell you to think before you speak, think before you type. Automatically firing from the hip can have disastrous long term effects for your business. If you post angry comments, or snarky remarks then anyone can see them on your business page.

You can cause offense, or anger someone and then they may not want to use your business. And that goes for everyone that saw your comments.

It takes a long time for a business to recover from bad press, and even longer if the business itself has generated the bad press by poor service. People will always remember a negative experience more than a positive one, so keep that in mind when you are dealing with your customers on social media.

Word of Mouth

Word of mouth can be a positive tool for growing your business, there is nothing more powerful than a recommendation from someone who loves and trusts your business. But on the flipside, there is nothing more damaging when someone has a negative experience.

If the comments are all over your social media pages, then the world can see. The comments will support the story of poor social media customer service that the one person is going around telling their friends and family. What started out as one disappointed person, could turn into hundreds of people turning away from your business because of your poor display on social media.

It Doesn’t Go Away

Nothing is ever really deleted in social media. You might remove it from your page, but it remains in people’s memories for far longer. Also, just because the original post is gone, doesn’t mean that someone didn’t screenshot it beforehand – forever capturing the moment of rude or offensive behaviour.

No Response Can Be Worse Than a Bad Response

If you are looking for a way to isolate your customers, and make them feel neglected, then ignore their messages. Ignoring a message does not mean that it is going to go away on its own. In fact, the longer you leave it, the worse it gets. Even if it is something unpleasant to deal with, you must tackle it head on.

Use every message as an opportunity for good customer service. Solve your customer’s issues swiftly and efficiently, turning a negative situation into a positive one. Instead of being angry about their initial complaint, they will be happy about how you turned it around and gave them a solution.

Remember that your first response to a publicly posted query or a complaint should be a public response. This is so that the world can see you have acknowledged the comment and that you care about your customers by responding.

Respond To Everything

Social Media Customer Service does not have to be limited to the negative aspects. Respond to each and every comment or message that you receive. If someone has taken the time to leave you a positive comment, then acknowledge it appropriately.

Engage with your community at every opportunity that you get. Engagement shows your business’ personality, increases the reach of your content, and proves to people there is a person behind the brand.

Because we spend such a large portion of our lives on social media, customer service becomes a spectator sport. People get a kick out of watching how a business responds to a complaint, and are not shy about spreading the word if the response is not up to their standard. Make sure you use every opportunity to represent your brand in the best light when social media is concerned.

4 comments on “Why Good Social Media Customer Service is Important”

I love this: “If someone has taken the time to leave you a positive comment, then acknowledge it appropriately.” So often we think things, but don’t say them. Especially positive things! When someone takes the time to actually share a thought, it’s so important to acknowledge that. Even when we don’t particularly like what they have to say!